Tech

Tech

Cyber attack depletes cell phone batteries

In a new type of cyber attack, assailants using computers connected to the Internet can secretly induce distant cell phones to rapidly deplete their batteries.

Tech

Size Matters: Biosensors behave oddly when very small

There might be a limit to how small physicists should build tiny sensors that detect viruses and molecules.

Tech

Wheel of Life: Bacteria provide horsepower for tiny motor

Crawling bacteria can power a micromotor.

Tech

The ups and downs of routing fluids on chips

A new way to build microscale pipes in three dimensions boosts the sophistication of chips that manipulate fluids to perform chemical reactions and other tasks.

Tech

Nanotubes signal when engine oil needs changing

A new, easy-to-fabricate sensor made from carbon nanotubes detects when automobile-engine oil needs replacement.

Tech

Hydrogen hopes in carbon shells

Lithium atoms added to buckyball surfaces bestow on these molecules a remarkable capacity to store hydrogen.

Tech

Glare gives silicon goose bumps

New experiments show that fluorescent lights cause undesirable bumpiness on the surface of silicon, identifying what may be a previously unrecognized cause of flaws in microchips that could become increasingly important.

Tech

Microbial Mug Shots: Telltale patterns finger bad bacteria

A sophisticated pattern-recognition technique that borrows from automated face recognition may permit identification of harmful bacteria faster and more cheaply than conventional methods do.

Tech

Tapping out a TAI-CHI tune

A new system permits people to make a keyboard and more out of a tabletop or any other hard surface.

Computing

Hairy Calculations: Picturing tresses in a truer light

Hard-to-simulate blond hair may look more natural in future animations thanks to a new computer model that allows for hairs' transparency and includes the illumination produced by light propagating from hair to hair.

Tech

Litmus test gets tiny

When zapped by a laser, new, light-sensitive nanobaubles could provide a reading of pH, or how acidic or basic a solution is, even from deep inside living cells.

Tech

Farm-Fuel Feedback: Soybeans have advantages over corn

A new analysis of two biofuels finds that while both provide more energy than they consume, soybean biodiesel gives more bang for the buck than ethanol made from corn.